On Artificial Christmas Trees

For many years we had an annual pilgrimage to a local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. This was a ritual that even I - someone jaded at Christmas hoopla and commercialism - actually looked forward to enjoying, and our large family would brave even the worst elements to select and cut our own tree.

This year, however, my wife talked me into buying an artificial tree. Actually, it was more like "my wife went out and purchased an artificial tree," and I did not need to be convinced. I am pleasantly surprised at the quality and user-friendliness of this tree.

All told it took me seven minutes to assemble this tree, which was complete with a lighting system. With a natural tree I cannot think of a single facet of procurement and installation that did not take hours to complete, and I have many memories of hacking oversized trees to make them fit our house and itchy arms from pine needle pokes.

It seems to me that we paid $40-$50 the last few years for natural Christmas trees, so the $230 we paid for this tree will pay for itself in just a few years. Add to this the fact that there is no maintenance, and that the tree does not seem to interest our dogs, who in the past have shown great interest in the various smells associated with a natural tree. I recall the year one of our dogs went berserk and destroyed a tree and a bunch of ornaments, and I suspect that the neutral odors of an artificial tree will not provide scents that fire up the canines.

So goodbye, natural trees: we had many good memories, but I am getting too old to be tramping through mud and snow to chop one of you down.

November Rose

Strangely, one of my rose bushes decided to wait until the second half of November to offer up its last blossom of the year. The weather had been in the high 40s (Fahrenheit, for any non-US readers) and almost every leave has fallen from the nearby oak, maple, and hickory trees, yet this rose bush responded to some stimuli that prompted this out-of-season flower.

I did trim the rose bushes a few weeks ago, which might have spurred some growth, but the odd appearance of a red rose so late in the year was a surprise. Beautiful, but still a surprise.

Target Practice

Left: AR-15-wielding historian

I took some time out of my schedule this weekend to join some colleagues on an outing to test some military weapons with historical significance. In the image on your left, I am lining up to shoot an AR-15, which is the semi-automatic version of the M-16 rifle.

We fired quite a variety of weapons today, ranging from a Mauser Gewehr 98 to an early twentieth century variant of the M1 Garand. We also fired quite a few different military handguns, and after today's demonstrations I have a much greater knowledge and awareness of military technology.

And no fun, whatsoever, was enjoyed by the participants in blasting away at targets for three hours.

Ahem.

Left: firing range target

I am far from a regular at the range, and I have fired rifles or muskets only a few times in my life. I was surprised that with some training (two of the participants are ex-military personnel) I could hit with some accuracy targets 100 yards away.

This has less to do with any skill on my part, and a bit more to do with the coaching. A larger part of the equation, though, is that military weapons are designed to be as user-friendly and easy-to-learn as possible. The AR-15, in particular, was relatively simple to operate, and on my first ten-round practice I hit in the black on the target five out of ten times.

I was much less successful with the Garrand and the Mauser, both of which I landed in the black three of ten times. The Mauser is also a physically punishing weapon, with a strong kick and an especially loud report. If I were an infantry soldier, I would prefer the AR-15 to the other weapons.

Fall Colors

Not only have I been away from the blogosphere the past few weeks, but I have spent little time tending my gardens. Thus, it was with some amazement that I paused to take in the beauty of a section of my yard that quietly emerged as an impressive patch of fall colors while I was too busy to notice.

I wish I could tell you every flower variety that I planted, but I tend to be somewhat impulsive in my seed selections and placement. Sure, I spend a minute making sure I plant full sun flowers in full sun, but I often forget after a few weeks what it was I planted. I know that there are about six marigold varieties, some nasturtiums, and three or four different types of zinnia in this garden, but I am clueless as to the names of at least six other flowers.

I suspect that the pink and purple flowers are some plant in the Aster family, but I cannot remember what the tall spiky red flowers are.

Anyway, the plot turned out well in spite of the almost total lack of weeding and watering I provided since late August.

Blog Hiatus

I will not be active on this blog for an undetermined amount of time. I have a heavy workload at the moment, and I am also gearing up for an extremely busy fall semester.

I should also add that my blogging Muse seems to have taken flight, and I will also use this time to figure out what this site is supposed to be about. When I was active as a freelance journalist the site complemented my news-related writing, but these days I have a diminished desire to post.

Anyway, I'll be back at some point in the future and we will chat further. Ciao!

Daylily Season

Among the more spectacular colors presented by our collection of perennials are those offered by the dalilies we have planted over the years. Specimens like the one pictured on your left bring unexpected hues to the yard at a time when the spring colors have all disappeared.

I also like that daylilies need very little in the way of maintenance, and they will produce flowers even in the driest years. Of course, they thrive when regularly watered and fed a general fertilizer, but I have some daylilies that I completely neglected while I was still in graduate school that never fail to return each year.

My wife and I, however, are of two different minds when it comes to separating daylilies to split into new colonies. I prefer the thick clusters with bunches of blossoms, while she likes to spread the color more widely. Of course, splitting daylilies eventually gives you multiple stands for the price of a single plant, but there is the lag time to consider as the divided plants grow to the mass of the formerly joined cluster.

First Sunflower of 2011

I have long been a fan of the simple sunflower, and over the past few years I have planted quite a few in my gardens. This year I set aside a 10'x20' patch of yard to create a massive sunflower garden, and the first of these flowers opened this morning, which is pictured on your left.

My dogs, of course, were uninterested in the project, and they trampled a greater number of sunflower seedlings than I expected In order to keep alive the dream of a wall of sunflowers, I was forced by canine destruction to plant more seeds. Hence, I may not get the simultaneous wave of colors I envisioned, but over the course of the summer I should have non-stop sunflower blossoms until October or so.

Interestingly, there are at least a half-dozen sunflowers that spontaneously emerged from seeds left over sunflower heads mauled by squirrels and finches last year. I originally planned a garden of rows of progressively shorter varieties (taller in back, shorter in front) but at this point it is anyone's guess how this will turn out.

But heck: half the fun of gardening is comparing design with results.

On Patience in Gardening

I started the garden pictured on your left about three years ago, and the idea to create this space was almost accidental. I had a spot that used to contain a rotting tree stump, and I had some flagstones that were collecting dust in another corner of the yard, and I decided to see if I could turn the space into something besides another patch of lawn.

When I selected my initial perennials for perennials for the space, I did not take into account soil pH and sunlight needs, and I was consequently disappointed when the purple fountain ornamental grass I planted did not return. The next year I went with some Stella d'oro lilies and some bright red Asiatic lilies. In the center I added a Rose of Sharon plant, and during the spring there are some daffodils and tulips for early color.

Of course, it was another two years before the plants in this space filled out to the point where I achieved something like a wall of color. Thus, this garden took about four years to emerge as a colorful source for peaceful contemplation, though the happy accidents are more fun than simply filling the space with a bunch of annuals each year.

The 2011 Arrival of Tiger Lilies

Over the last half-decade I have used this blog to record horticultural markers for the seasons, and the arrival of the first tiger lily of 2011 sent me back into my blog archives. The first tiger lily emerged on June 9 in 2010, June 21 in 2009, on June 18 in 2008, and on June 17 in 2007. Tiger lilies, which have the scientific name of Hemerocallis fulva, first bloomed in my yard on June 17 in 2006.

Thus, this year's flowers arrived somewhat near the end of the scale, as today is June 18. With the heavy rains of this past May (23 rainy days) I expected that the tiger lilies would arrive early, but this is not the case. Perhaps they need warmth more than moisture to kick into gear, as this spring was a bit cooler than average.

Still, though many gardeners scoff at the common Hemerocallis fulva (also known as "ditch lily" to even more scornful gardeners, for whom the tiger lily is considered invasive) I look forward to these orange flowers the way I do old friends. They provide strong colors, they are easy to maintain, and they grow in almost any soils and conditions. I have some in shady areas, dry areas, full sun areas, and even in a rock-strewn patch behind the garage where the former owner dumped motor oil.

Cornucopia of Roses

In the past two years I have begun to pay more attention to several rose bushes my wife planted in the early 1990s. While "neglect" is a strong word to use for my previous efforts at taking care of these plants, suffice to say that I did little more than hack them down when they became overgrown, and they suffered from black spot and insect degradations, despite my wife's suggestions that I treat the plants with rose sprays.

The past two summers I have applied some preventive fungal inhibitors, and I also gave the plants some fertilizer. In addition, I have been much more meticulous in removing dead stems and keeping the soil around the base of the plants free from debris.

We were amazed at how much healthier, vigorous, and blossom-yielding several of the rose bushes were this year. Perhaps we might also add that this was a very wet spring, but the net result has been a veritable wave of magenta-hued flowers in the yard.

Moral of the story: when your wife suggests something, she is probably right.

Delphinium

A few years ago I picked up a small Delphinium plant, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well this plant adapted to my garden. In my region the Delphinium plant produces multiple rounds of blue-violet blossoms, and last year we had three separate flowering periods with these plants.

The brilliant blue and violet hues the plant produces contrast well with many other colors. As you can see in the image, the bluish colors mesh well with the yellow irises, and the constancy of the blue Delphinium makes for unexpected color bonanzas when later blossoms arrive. From another angle they also pair well with some red and pink poppies that are hidden in this image.

The various species of Delphinium are rather toxic, though, so be sure to keep Delphinium away from small children and pets. The plant produces the toxic alkaloid delphinine, which can be fatal in large doses.

This perennial plant can be propagated from seed, or you can also split the rhizomes and start new colonies in other gardens. In this garden the Delphinium grew from a single stalk to about eight stalks in three years: moderate growth, but not the type of plant that overwhelms a garden.

Asparagus Curse Lifted

I recall at least five previous attempts to grow asparagus in my garden, and each of the earlier efforts were dismal failures. I tried a variety of techniques, from adding heavier amounts of potassium to varying water levels to trying full and partial sun locations.

All were busts.

I looked skeptically at the package of asparagus crowns at the Andersons general store a month ago, but I threw them in the cart just the same. Weeks went by with no signs of life, and I was just about to till this space in favor of an easier vegetable like squash when I noticed the first asparagus spears that have ever sprouted at Château Brooks.

Yes, there are only four or five spears, and yes: there is still plenty of time for my dogs to trample these plants. Yet I remain hopeful that I have finally mastered the art of growing asparagus, and I look forward to next spring for the first bountiful harvest of fresh picked asparagus.